Land battle
Battles occur when one player or alliance attacks the city of another player, which can be reinforced by their alliance in turn. The basic breakdown A land battle will occur in either situation: * A pillage mission * An occupation mission Battles are broken up into rounds. Each round lasts 20 minutes, and the battle will only end with one party ending victorious in any of the situations: * All of the enemy player's units are killed. * Either the offender or defender surrender. * Morale reaches a low point and the units flee. Land battles The battle does not officially begin until one of the wall's possible breaches are destroyed, therefore bringing several siege weapons is highly advised. Walls have defensive features, so can damage an army before any breaches have been achieved. There are some bits of a battle that need a slightly larger comprehension of the game, but it still is fairly simple. The main aim in a land battle is usually to breach the town wall losing the least number of heavy, light, ranged and auxiliary units. Sea battles Sea battles do not contain walls, therefore there are no defensive bonuses for ships. Air units naturally don't fight in these battles and, due to the lack of a wall, there are no artillery ships. Also, there are only 10 unit spaces per battlefield space in the sea battlefield. The battlefield The size of the Town hall affects the size of the battlefield. With every advancement of battlefield, a larger amount of troops are deployed at once. The rest are all classed as reserves and will only come into battle to replace another unit who was killed. If the Heavy Infantry (Hoplites & Steam Giants) line is broken and no other Heavy Infantry units can replace it, other units from the Light Infantry, Long-Range Fighter and Auxiliary categories will replace them, however they are much more likely to die than a standard Heavy Infantry unit. This means that, to make Long-Range Fighter units and Auxiliary units do their jobs, you must first fill the Heavy Infantry spaces. :Note: Heavy Infantry units will not spread themselves out across the Heavy Infantry spaces, they all try to get into full groups, and thus will only have a complete line if enough troops are sent. Good battle examples Bring enough fully upgraded Steam Giants, Swordsmen, Sulphur Carabineers, Mortars and lots of Auxiliary units to fill all the corresponding spots and have some extra in reserve, especially for the Sulphur Carabineers, which only have 3 rounds of ammo. The Heavy Infantry will create a very good defense, the Swordsmen will attempt to flank the enemies, successfully if the enemy has no Light Infantry, the Sulphur Carabineers will shoot the target with their Harquebuses, the auxiliary troops will heal the Heavy Infantry and feed all the troops, and, assuming there are no Balloon-Bombardiers, the Artillery units will be safe to destroy the walls. Bad battle examples Attacking a village with a simple army such as some spearmen, swordsmen, a few slingers, no rams, and maybe a cook with about 30 hoplites will probably be unsuccessful because Heavy Infantry and Artillery units are lacking. But lets say you're attacking with an army of 20 hoplites and several of the other types. Since a square of positioning takes 30 men max you will only be able to partially fill 1 square with your Hoplites. Soldiers from the other lines (Archers, Swordsmen etc) will fill the slots but will be quickly defeated. Tips If you want to attack a big town that you can't afford to fill its front battle line but you have confirmed that they don't have (or have few) protectors in that place, just send your Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry units, in order to protect the Long-Range Fighter and Auxiliary units. This is also useful if your aim is not a serious fight but want to go there with a good batle plan. If you have no other options, sending just Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry and Artillery units should suffice. Morale Morale is one of the main driving forces of a battle, affecting one of the three possible outcomes of the battle. When a battle starts, morale is at 100% for both sides. However, during the battle morale decreases by 10% every round, therefore if no cooks are present, a battle can only last at maximum 10 rounds. Also, due to varying sizes of soldiers between armies, morale can drop even further in the smaller army. * Note: 1 cook reduces the drop in morale by 1% in each round. Ergo, if 100 cooks are sent into battle, morale will stay at 100%, eliminating the chance of the battle ending as a morale based defeat. From combat experience and various reports by active players it is noted that sending 30 or more cooks has the effect of mainting morale at 100% all through. This has been observed in battles that went on for 30+ rounds. Battlefield types Village A town of levels 1-4 is classed as a Village. The smallest battlefield allows the following: * 3 slots x 30 spaces = 90 spaces allowing Heavy Infantry units or Long Range units forced to take the front line. (e.g. 30 Hoplites, or 10 Steam Giants, etc. per slot) * 3 slots x 30 spaces = 90 spaces allowing Long Range units '''(e.g. 30 Slingers, 30 Archers, or 7 Sulfur Carabineers '''per slot nothing else goes here) * 1 slot x 30 spaces = 30 spaces allowing Artillery (e.g. 6 Rams, 6 Catapults, or 6 Mortars per solt nothing else goes here) * 1 slot allowing 10 Gyrocopters (nothing else goes here) * 1 slot allowing 5 Balloon-Bombardier (nothing else goes here) * 1 slot allowing unlimited number of Cooks * 1 slot allowing unlimited numbers of Doctors * The village is too small to allow the maneuvering for Light Infantry Units, therefore there are no slots for flanks. Town A town of levels 5-9 is classed as a Town. The medium battlefield allows the following: * 5 slots x 30 spaces = 150 spaces allowing Heavy Infantry units * 5 slots x 30 spaces = 150 spaces allowing Long Range units * 2 slots x 30 spaces = 60 spaces allowing Light Infantry Units '''(e.g. 30 Swordsmen, or 30 Spearmen '''per slot nothing else goes here) *2 slots x 30 spaces = 60 spaces allowing Artillery *1 slot allowing 20 Gyrocopters *1 slot allowing 10 Balloon-Bombardier *1 slot allowing unlimited number of Cooks *1 slot allowing unlimited numbers of Doctors Metropolis/Open battle field A town from levels 10 upwards is classed as a Metropolis. The largest battlefield consists of the following: *7 slot x 30 spaces = 210 spaces allowing Heavy Infantry units *7 slot x 30 spaces = 210 spaces allowing Long Range units *4 slot x 30 spaces = 120 spaces allowing Light Infantry units *3 slot x 30 spaces = 30 spaces allowing Artillery *1 slot allowing 30 Gyrocopters *1 slot allowing 15 Balloon-Bombardier *1 slot allowing unlimited number of Cooks *1 slot allowing unlimited numbers of Doctors Typical Battle Formations In light of explanation of different battle field sizes above, typical full-deployment formations consist of: Village battle field: 90 Hoplites/30 Steam Ginats, 90 Slingers/Archers or 21 Sulfur carabineers, 6 Rams/Catapults/Mortars, 10 Gyrocopters, 5 Balloon Bombardiers, unlimited cooks, unlimited doctors Town battle field: 150 Hoplites/50 Steam Ginats, 150 Slingers/Archers or 35 Sulfur carabineers, 12 Rams/Catapults/Mortars, 20 Gyrocopters, 10 Balloon Bombardiers, unlimited cooks, unlimited doctors Mteropolis/Open battle filed: 210 Hoplites/70 Steam Ginats, 210 Slingers/Archers or 49 Sulfur carabineers, 18 Rams/Catapults/Mortars, 30 Gyrocopters, 15 Balloon Bombardiers, unlimited cooks, unlimited doctors Notes: *All extra units will go into reserve. *All units that's ammo dependent (slingers, archers, sulfur carabineers, catapults, mortars, gyrocopters and balloon bombardiers) will pool their ammo together. For example, if you have 36 catapults deployed in a metorpolis/open battle field (18 catapults taking the battle field), you'll have ammo enough for 10 rounds (36 x 5 shots each = 180 shots / 18 shots per round = 10), and so forth for other units. *Long range units will remain in the long range line as long as they are not out of ammunition. Long Range units will be 'forced' to take the front line, if and only if, (1) they run out of ammo (2) a gap is present in the front line. Same applies to Long Range units in sea battle (Ballistas, Catapult ships, and Mortar ships) *The attacking player might be forced to fight in the largest size battle field, regardless of the size of the town size under attack. This happens only when the defending units body count is more than the garrison limit of the town they defend. This has many startegic defensive advantages, to mention a few (1) the element of surprising the attacker who is expecting to fight a certain battle field size with closed flanks and a wall, only to find him/herslef fighing an open field with open flanks. He/she may not be prepared for this and did not send flanking units in the first wave, which will result in a slaughter of the attacking ranged units and artillery if the defense have unopposed flank units (2) Fighting few rounds in open filed while defending army is losing units will exhaust attackers artillery units munition. When enough casualties are sustained by the defender that the army body count is less than the garrison limit, the battle will move behind the town wall. This means an automatic defeat for the attacker if they are out of artillery munition, or still have munition but is not enough to take down the wall, or don't have a chance or cannot send a new artillery reinforcement wave. Unit types Units break down into the following: Heavy Infantry Heavy Infantry are the basis of the army. Heavy Infantry will occupy your front line, if you do not have enough Heavy Infantry to fill the front line, Light Infantry, Auxiliary, and Long-Range Fighter units will move up, so you will need a lot. Heavy Infantry will attack the opponents Heavy Infantry and/or Town wall. 30 Hoplites can fill one unit slot of the battlefield, but it takes only 10 Steam Giants to fill it. Barbarians-Axe Swingers are also considered as Heavy Infantry and 15 of them can fill one unit slot of the battlefield. File:Hoplite.png|Hoplite File:Steamgiant.PNG|Steam Giant Light Infantry Light Infantry units are vital for the protection against flank attacks. Light infantry will occupy your flank. Light Infantry units will attack your opponents Light Infantry until your opponent has no more Light Infantry, after that, they will attack Long Range units and Heavy Infantry. They will move to the front line if it starts to break. Each of these take 30 men to fill up one battlefield slot. File:Spearman.gif|Spearman File:Swordsman.png|Swordsman Long-Range Fighter Long-Range Fighters attack your opponents front line. They occupy the long range area behind the front line (it does not have an official name). Long Range units also have a limited amount of ammunition, though they can share ammo with other Long Range units of the same type in the reserve. They will move to the front line if it starts to break. 30 each Slingers and Archers comprise a battlefield unit, but only 7 Sulphur Carabineers will completely fill a slot. File:Slinger.png|Slinger File:Archer.png|Archer File:Sulphur Carabineer.png|Sulphur Carabineer Fighter Pilot There is only 1 type of Fighter Pilot to occupy the Air Defense slot, the Gyrocopter. Gyrocopter can attack other air units, but can not attack any land units. 30 Gyrocopters will fill a battlefield unit. File:Gyrocopter.png|Gyrocopter Bomber There is only 1 type of Bomber to occupy the Air slot, the Balloon-Bombardier. Balloon-Bombardiers will first attack the opponents Artillery, if all the Artillery is destroyed, the remaining damage will hit the opponents long-range fighters. 15 Balloon-Bombardiers will fill a battlefield unit. File:Balloon-Bombardier.png|Balloon-Bombardier Artillery Artillery weapons are essential for breaking down a higher level Town wall, providing large amounts of attack power. They will first attack the opponents wall, if your opponent has no wall remaining, the damage will go to other front line units. It is important to note that if your opponents wall is partly destroyed, all the damage will go to the remaining wall segments. Additionally, once a Town wall becomes Level 24, Rams can not do any damage to it. Although Catapults can damage any known level wall, it becomes very slow at higher levels, so mortars are recommended. Artillery will never move to the front line, therefore the close range attack is useless or only used when they run out of munition. Each of these weapons take 6 units to fill a battlefield slot. File:Ram.png|Ram File:Catapult.png|Catapult File:Mortar.png|Mortar Auxiliary These troops lie behind the front lines and even behind the artillery, they can not be killed unless they are forced to take the front line, they are the only troops you can have unlimited out at a time. Doctors will restore health, and Cooks will restore morale. File:Cook.png|Cooks restore morale File:Doctor.png|Doctors restore hit points Last revised 02/15/2010. Current as of Ikariam v0.3.2.2 Category:Game mechanics Category:Guides